Christmas Preparations and Pam's Visit

It was a very busy and fun week. I had meetings in Cincinnati this week for work and made the drive back and forth several days. Jamie's step-mom Pam arrived Thursday evening. My meeting was only half-day on Friday, so Jamie, Pam and I met up for lunch and did some shopping. We had Jamie's office holiday party that night, so we were grateful to have Pam there to be with the kids.

Saturday there was a St. Nicholas Festival at Katie's school, so while I was volunteering for my shift in the Secret Santa gift shop (note to self: do not volunteer for a.m. duties following Christmas party!) Jamie took the girls to enjoy many of the activites available, like making sand sculptures and decorating cookies.

Once I was done in the Santa Shop, Katie went in to make her purchases and Jamie and I tried to entertain Caroline who seemed to view the bake sale table as an open buffet! Every time we stopped to visit with a friend off she went to grab a cookie, and Jamie kept following behind with quarters. She enjoyed the storytime with Mrs. Claus and sat quietly for a few minutes there. Then she and Jamie left and Katie and I stayed to make reindeer food (which will need to be sprinkled on our lawn Christmas Eve) and visit the craft tables.

That evening we went out to dinner and enjoyed the Christmas decorations and live nativity scene.

Sunday we went to church where the girls celebrated St. Nicholas Day at Sunday School, then had a "quiet" day at home. I use the quotations because at times it was actually quite loud! Here the girls are pictured with Pam wearing their new Christmas pajamas, which were so snuggly that they made the girls want to wrestle around "snuggling" each other.

Pam left very early this morning (she and Jamie were up at 4:30 a.m.) and when the girls awoke much later, they discovered that we had our first snow of the season. Here they are watching it and discussing with each other whether school might be cancelled and whether they might wear their new boots.